In the old subway system, you bought tokens. Each token cost the same (say, $1.25), and each entitled you to one ride on the train. It's an easy model that you don't have to think about. The new systems allow you to store any amount of value on the Charlie Cards -- a feature that layers on much mental gymnastics:

I forget how much money I have on my card right now. I have to find a machine to check.

How much is the fare again?

So, if I do the subtraction, do I have enough for tonight / this weekend / this week?

No? Then how much do I have to add?

It would speed usage and reduce the mental burden if the ticket machines simply asked you how many subway trips you wanted to store, and then told you the price. For buses and commuter rail, where price depends on the length of the trip, just ask the route and the number of trips, and show how much money is required. The Charlie Card as a rapid-transit debit system is seriously flawed because it lacks visibility, requires so much human computation, and is so unintuitive for new riders.

Nevertheless, this more complicated model would still be doable for most folks, if the system supporting it were clearer. Instead, everything from where the machines are placed in the stations, to the
counterintuitive fare structure, creates a nightmare of bad usability. Beyond the UI of the ticket machines, many other factors contribute to a very poor user experience.

Whenever I've had to use the Green Line before Red Sox games, the stations at either end of the line teem with chaotic swarms of travelers unused to the new system. People are forced to have T employees help them through the process one at a time. There's simply no way to figure it out oneself. At some rush-hour stations, queues of unhappy riders shuffling from point to point create a farcical bureaucratic dystopia, like something out of the movie Brazil.

The system compares very poorly to the much older, much easier system in Washington DC. It's so bad that I've cynically begun to think it was built unintuitively on purpose, to preserve or expand the T workforce. At least one T worker agrees with me.

(Edit: now with Alertbox-style bolding to make this post more scannable.)

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We have a new system being implemented in Atlanta as well. It is called the breeze card. Luckily, I get mine through my office so I never have to reload it, but my wife does not. You need to load it at a machine (you cannot do it online and not sure if that will ever be an option) and every time you enter and exit the station you need to tap the card. If you do not "tap it" on your way out the system thinks you are still on the train. In my opinion, this is causing a sort of gridlock on people exiting the stations because you have to dig your card out of your purse, wallet, pocket etc. I understand why they are doing it because the can better serve the masses by determining where people are not only getting on the trains, but getting off as well. It's sort of big brother-like, but my name or personal information is no where on the card so it's not like they can follow my travel patterns.....yet.

Thanks for the comment Paul. There seems to be a careful tradeoff between privacy and convenience for most electronic payment systems like these. Certainly electronic highway toll collection systems, which are very usable for consumers, raise concerns as to what businesses and governments are doing with personally identifiable driving records. --Joshua

I cannot understand anyone who says the CharlieCard is difficult to figure out. It could not be any simpler. Anyone who says he/she finds the CharlieCard confusing probably has a lot of other 'issues' he/she is coping with.

Not a big deal. Every time I try to buy a Charlie Card at the Harvard Station, they don't have any. It's all a moot point if they don't make the cards available to the public. Oh wait. Maybe that's another flaw? :)

When I visited Phoenix on an Elderhostel tour a few years ago, the city buses had fare boxes that read credit or debit cards--a great idea. No need for passes, tickets, correct fare (often something awkward like $1.45), etc. I suggested it to RTD here (Denver Metro Area) but they said it would cost too much to implement. I use 10-ride ticket books as I live here, which work well (discounted now I've turned 65); but it's awkward for visitors.

When I grew up in Boston, the subway (MTA, then the "T") took subway tokens that then cost 20¢. Great, and simple. (they were just 15¢ in New York).
--Roger Williams, Boulder, Colorado.

When I visited Phoenix on an Elderhostel tour a few years ago, the city buses had fare boxes that read credit or debit cards--a great idea. No need for passes, tickets, correct fare (often something awkward like $1.45), etc. I suggested it to RTD here (Denver Metro Area) but they said it would cost too much to implement. I use 10-ride ticket books as I live here, which work well (discounted now I've turned 65); but it's awkward for visitors.

When I grew up in Boston, the subway (MTA, then the "T") took subway tokens that then cost 20¢. Great, and simple. (they were just 15¢ in New York).
--Roger Williams, Boulder, Colorado.

I'm so glad someone has pointed out the dreadful design of the Charlie Card system. I work in the Boston area and have been taking the T on and off for 10 years (coincidentally, I'm a user experience/usability specialist). It is clear that the implementers of the Charlie Card system did little or no field research and/or testing on this system before launch.

It is unintuitive for first time riders, and more tellingly, for perpetual novices as well. I've been an occasional T rider for 10 years and I STILL have trouble using the new Charlie System. I can't imagine what someone from out of town goes through.

Major problems:

1)The credit card swiper often requires multiple attempts because of misreads or "user error". I've heard users being told by the T-helpers (those employees who have been explicitly hired to stand around and help confused riders) "you swept your card too fast." That behvaior is no surprise as another common use case for card readers --- at gas stations ---- warns customers to "swip quickly" (or else?) Can't their readers mimic the existing behavior?

2) When purchasing a roundtrip fare, instead of selecting "one roundtrip fare," the Charlie Card requires that you enter in a dollar amount (even though 98% of all rides are the EXACT SAME amount) So I have to do the math in my head ($1.70 per ride x 2 = $3.40) and type in $3.40. It doesn't sound like a big deal but watching person after person pause to do the addition adds up to significant time being wasted daily by our transportation system. I'm sure the T thinks that people will just load up there cards and not worry about arithmetic, but that is not the common usage pattern for riders. Illogical as it may seem, many people are content to "pay as they go." This is a classic case of not understanding user behaviors.

3)The worst: I lied in #2. The T actually does charge two different rates. $1.70 if you have a Charlie Card (a little plastic card) and $2.00 if you are only paying one time only and don't want to buy a card. But NOWHERE in the system is this actually stated!! It's conveniently posted on a sheet of paper taped to the top of each console, which is the last place people look when focusing on the screens below. So if you miss the rate change and put $3.40 on your card, when you try to go home the card buzzes at you, the gates don't open, and there you are, swearing on your grandmothers grave to the T employee that you put enough money in while he/she has the "I've heard this about 50 times today" look on his face. Because as far as you know with the information that was made clear to you, you DID put in enough money. But you didn't.

Sidenote: The whole purpose for offering a plastic Charlie card is to reduce paper waste. More plastic, less ticket stubs lying on the floor. A good idea right? Unfortunately, at the end of each day, many T station floors are littered with paper anyway. Why? Because even when you use the Charlie Card and don't get a paper ticket, you are still given a paper receipt (which you cannot opt out of!) I can't believe the designers chose to do this.

And if you couldn't tell this system is pissing me off, it's getting under the skins of T employees too. I actually had a "helper" tell me, you have to be "smarter than the machine" as he left in a huff over my frustration of not being able to get the fare right.